Jimmy Mahon

Jimmy Mahon was an Irish Citizen Army and IRA officer during the 1916 Easter Rising and the Irish War of Independence.

Biography
Jimmy Mahon was born in Dublin, County Dublin, Ireland, the brother of Arthur and Paddy Mahon. He came from a working-class family, and he became a staunch Irish republican and socialist in response to Britain's poor treatment of its Irish subjects. Mahon joined the Irish Citizen Army of James Connolly and became a propagandist at the ITGWU building. On the outbreak of World War I, Arthur joined the British Army, leaving Jimmy to take care of his wife Peggy and her four children; Jimmy's nephew Peter idolized his uncle and begged him for an ICA uniform. Mahon was involved in the drafting of the proclamation of the Irish Republic just before the start of the Easter Rising in 1916, and, upon the uprising's start, he was assigned to serve under Sean Connolly in the unit sent to take Dublin Castle. The assault was a failure, and Mahon and the others were forced to retreat to the General Post Office, where Connolly was killed and Kathleen Lynn took command of the defense. On 26 April, a few days after the start of the uprising, Mahon and Elizabeth Butler took part in the IRB's evacuation of the GPO, and Mahon and Frances O'Flaherty were sent by James Connolly to help Mick Malone ambush the British reinforcements sent into Dublin. Mahon and O'Flaherty managed to escape as more reinforcements arrived, and, while O'Flaherty escaped the battle while dressed as a civilian, Mahon was one of the IRB fighters who was forced to surrender upon the uprising's defeat on 29 April. Mahon was imprisoned alongside Desmond Byrne and Eamon de Valera, whom he deridingly called "the Spaniard" and insulted for his failure to reinforce the besieged IRA troops in Dublin.

During the Irish War of Independence, Mahon took part in guerrilla warfare against the British Army and Royal Irish Constabulary, continuing his fight for Irish independence.